Fergus Falls Regional Treatment Center

The enormous red-brick psychiatric complex that dominates the hill north of downtown is one of the most striking derelict buildings in Minnesota. It was built in the 1890s in the Kirkbride plan style — a design theory that held that mental illness could be treated through architecture, with long curving wings designed to allow light and air to reach every room. At its peak the complex housed over 1,600 patients and was essentially a self-contained city with its own farm, bakery, and power plant.

The state closed the hospital in 2005 and the buildings have been empty since. As of the early 2020s, redevelopment plans are in various stages of progress. The exterior can be viewed from the road and the grounds are walkable on the public-access paths around the perimeter. Urban explorers and photographers come from across the state for the interior (though entering the closed buildings is officially trespassing). The sheer scale of the complex — several interconnected buildings covering many acres — makes it impressive even from the outside.

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A story
In 2017, GQ magazine published a sharply critical 8,000-word article about Fergus Falls — written by a German journalist who lived there for two months — which residents said was full of fabrications and misrepresentations. The one authentic thing in the story was the psychiatric hospital, whose hulking Kirkbride complex had been sitting empty on the hill above town since 2005. In a twist of fate, the national attention brought by the controversy helped accelerate efforts to redevelop the building.